Loretta Keller: Drawn into the education budget sinkhole - SGVTribune.com:
"Although one-time federal stimulus funds have been used to restore teaching posts in California and other states for this school year, that has only blunted - not solved - our state's education crises. The Feds want states to take teacher performance into account, but California's education moguls are balking, and 'Race to the top' stimulus monies may not come through as a result. The unions have said 'no' to teacher merit pay or linking teachers to student performance. Nor do they care about getting and keeping the best teachers. Seniority, rigidly defined, determines who will or will not have a job over the coming years.
What this means for Alicia is that her path to a teaching career has been road blocked, at least for now. Her former principal, who thinks the world of her, tried very hard to keep her at the school, but to no avail. About 120 teachers in her district were let go and the education code states that laid off teachers need to be placed in open positions before new hires can be taken on. Alicia is perfectly willing to take what's known as a long-term subbing job, which she's had in the past, but because in the eyes of the union she isn't a laid off employee, she isn't even eligible to sub day to day in her district. Three times she thought she had found something in other districts but three times the openings fell through. Yet she hasn't given up."
"Although one-time federal stimulus funds have been used to restore teaching posts in California and other states for this school year, that has only blunted - not solved - our state's education crises. The Feds want states to take teacher performance into account, but California's education moguls are balking, and 'Race to the top' stimulus monies may not come through as a result. The unions have said 'no' to teacher merit pay or linking teachers to student performance. Nor do they care about getting and keeping the best teachers. Seniority, rigidly defined, determines who will or will not have a job over the coming years.
What this means for Alicia is that her path to a teaching career has been road blocked, at least for now. Her former principal, who thinks the world of her, tried very hard to keep her at the school, but to no avail. About 120 teachers in her district were let go and the education code states that laid off teachers need to be placed in open positions before new hires can be taken on. Alicia is perfectly willing to take what's known as a long-term subbing job, which she's had in the past, but because in the eyes of the union she isn't a laid off employee, she isn't even eligible to sub day to day in her district. Three times she thought she had found something in other districts but three times the openings fell through. Yet she hasn't given up."